Trains are the dominant form of ground-based mass-transport. A wide variety of such trains are deployed ranging from diesel and electric powered trains to even more recent deployment of magnetic-levitation based trains. Such trains require significant energy input in order to be driven and, at the speeds they currently achieve, air resistance becomes a significant factor.
One previously suggested alternative is to place a train or capsule in an evacuated tube. By placing the vehicle to be transported in an evacuated tube, the effective air resistance can be reduced allowing for faster or more economical travel. While such systems have been proposed, to the applicant's knowledge, none have been implemented successfully for passenger travel.
Accordingly, there is a need for an alternative evacuated tube based transport system.